1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to wired and wireless Internet directory addressing, e-mail, unified messaging services, Internet telephony, instant messaging, video conferencing, and paging, and more particularly to an Internet e-mail and web page directory based on users"" telephone numbers.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
The Internet is a global network of networks, which has completely transformed many businesses and processes. The Internet provides various services, including the World-Wide Web, e-mail, file transfer protocol (FTP) and others. Internet e-mail provides the ability for users anywhere in the world to send electronic mail to each other using the Internet. Internet web site addresses allow users anywhere in the world to access information hosted on corresponding web sites. However, people who are not connected or are not currently connected to the Internet generally cannot communicate with users connected to the Internet using e-mail and/or cannot access Internet web sites. Another problem with Internet communications is there is generally no global directory available to users, which lists all communication addresses or web site addresses. Thus, in many cases, a user has no effective means for determining another user""s e-mail address, web site address, Voice over IP address, Instant Messaging address or Paging address. Therefore, an improved system and method is desired which provides simplified addressing for Internet and telephone messaging.
The present invention comprises various embodiments of an Internet directory system and method that is based on user telephone number addressing. The system may include an interactive white and/or yellow pages directory that is based on telephone numbers. Thus, a user""s telephone number may be a unique identifier used to key other information within the directory. An end-user may first sign up to use this Internet directory service, and then the user may receive an e-mail account, which is based on his/her telephone number. For example, if a user""s telephone number is 123-4567 in area code 512, the user""s e-mail address may be 1234567@us512.net. The telephone number may also be used as the primary component of a domain name for the user, such as www.us512.net/1234567/default.htm or 1234567.us512.net. Thus, the user""s web page is also constructed using a URL which is based primarily on the user""s telephone number. The phone number does not have to be looked up in a database or de-referenced to find the information; the actual telephone number directly allows the information to be found. Thus, this system utilizes users"" telephone numbers for a respective user""s communication methods and web home page.
The use of a telephone number as the primary component of an e-mail address and/or domain name greatly simplifies the process of locating a user""s email address. Email addresses and/or domain names may be readily found using standard telephone information services, such as xe2x80x9c411xe2x80x9d, as well as other methods for obtaining telephone directory information. The user""s phone number indicates both the user""s e-mail address as well as the home page of the user, wherein both may be stored in the interactive directory. This Internet directory system and method brings all communication methods and directory services together using one searchable key, a user""s telephone number. Once the Internet directory entry is made into the main directory, this is available to potential callers by using either the telephone or a computer accessing the Internet. In addition, since most or all of the information required to send Email or access web content is numeric, entry from a conventional telephone or mobile phone is seamless with unaltered end user equipment.
In one embodiment, every member in the Internet directory has a mailbox (email account) as well as an associated web page, wherein the web page may be used as the entry in the directory for the member (as an example, this could be an online local Yellow pages which brings together many small businesses in a virtual neighborhood). For example, a user""s web page may be: www.us512.net/1234567/default.htm. This web page may be accessed via the directory page by simply typing in the user""s telephone number. For example, a family can have an entry in the directory listing which features a picture of their children, a link to their home and/or business site, etc., and other desired information.
The directory entry page may be created, edited and updated by the subscriber using simple html editing from within a browser or the subscriber may have a link to his own sites. Alternatively, a directory listing or web page can also be created and/or updated using a voice telephone call or via fax, without the use of a personal computer. A user can call in and create or update a listing in the directory by supplying a voice message. The voice message may be stored and placed on the web page for that number, i.e., the web page associated with the user. The voice message may be stored on the web page as an audio file or as a text file that has been generated from the voice message. The telephone caller ID information may be used to obtain the telephone number for the URL of the web page, and then the voice message may then be incorporated in the page. In a similar manner, the user may create or update a web page using a fax method. Hence, a non-computer user can create or update a listing in the directory using only a telephone or a fax machine.
Thus, one embodiment of the present invention provides an open directory model wherein the end users construct the directory, and the directory is xe2x80x9clivingxe2x80x9d, i.e., dynamically changeable and updateable. The power of the directory is thus placed in the users"" hands.
The telephone based Internet directory system of the present invention also provides addressing for unified messaging. Unified messaging refers to the ability of users to transmit communications using diverse communication mechanisms, such as one or more of e-mail, telephone, wireless telephone, paging, instant messaging or fax, among others.
In one embodiment of the invention, a user (calling party or caller) may dial a telephone number, such as a 1-800 number, to access a callee. In response to the call, a computer asks the calling party to enter the telephone number of the person with which they desire to communicate. The callee who wishes to be contacted has set his/her directory entry to enable various communication methods, which can be accessed according to the privilege of the calling party. A callee user may have various methods defined in their directory entry, such as a telephone number, a wireless telephone or cellular number, a pager number, an email address, and an instant messaging ID. The system responds to the calling party after the calling party enters the number and requests which type of service is desired to be used, e.g., xe2x80x9cPress 1 for Cellular, Press 2 for Pagingxe2x80x9d. According to the selection made, the calling party will either be connected via telephone or passed to the appropriate paging carrier. The 1-800 service allows an end user (callee) to control the access that people have through this service by setting up selections in their administration web page. For home users who have multiple users on their main number, the 1-800 number may respond using text to speech, asking the calling party which user they desire to communicate with. In addition, password protection can be applied to limit the people who use certain services. The numbers and the email addresses comprised in the callee""s directory may or may not be accessible to the calling parties accessing the records. This is important in order to provide privacy and security to prevent the numbers being used for other means. This also gives a telephone company offering the 1-800 service control over charging for the outbound services, such as Long Distance, Paging etc, as the calling party must go through this 1-800 telephone number, since they do not have direct access to the numbers.
As one example of the above method, one embodiment of the present invention provides the ability for a telephone user to send an e-mail to a person connected to the Internet using voice base messaging and telephone number based addressing. For example, a person in one geographic location which does not have access to a computer, who desires to transmit a message using Internet e-mail, would be able to do so by using a telephone, dialing a local number and inputting the desired voice message (or text message). The user also enters the telephone number- of the target or destination recipient. The email address of the recipient may be manually or automatically constructed using the recipient""s telephone number, and the message is sent directly via the Internet using the telephone number-based email address. The desired message arrives in the user""s e-mail account, e.g., 1234567@us512.net. When the message arrives at this e-mail account, the message can be viewed directly or forwarded to another location.
The Internet directory system of the present invention includes an inherent organization, which provides locality in addressing. In other words, since a user""s area code is used as a partial basis for the user""s Internet web page and e-mail account, searches may be more readily performed in a local or geographic region based on this area code. This locality is important in allowing customers, consumers and businesses to cooperate in a local listing service. This locality also provides a very localized searching capability and localized target marketing and advertising. One embodiment of the invention thus may include a xe2x80x9crequest for quote/informationxe2x80x9d mechanism for consumers to obtain bids from local businesses, leveraging this local search ability. Using this xe2x80x9crequest for quotexe2x80x9d mechanism, the user may target all service providers in a desired area code or exchange area in a single e-mail and then wait for responses. After responses have been received, the user can examine each service provider""s home page in the directory to select the desired service provider.
In one embodiment of the invention, when a business or service provider signs up for the Internet directory service, the business or provider has an option to enable or disable a feedback page. When a business or provider has an enabled feedback page, the user can select and view feedback from other users on their respected business as providing the user more information on the business. Thus, instead of having to xe2x80x9cguessxe2x80x9d when selecting businesses or providers, and instead of having to tediously call individual references, the user may now readily view other people""s feedback and comments with respect to certain businesses or providers.